i3D.net logo in blue
i3D.net logo in blue

How Saber scaled consistent multiplayer performance globally — including in China

For modern multiplayer games, launch day performance can make or break long-term success. Negative player experiences during those first critical weeks often translate directly into poor reviews, churn, and lost revenue. For Saber Interactive, a studio known for large-scale, multiplayer-enabled titles such as Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 and World War Z, delivering a stable and performant online experience across regions was both a technical and commercial priority.

To support a growing portfolio of live games, Saber partnered with i3D.net to enhance existing hybrid infrastructure with powerful, reliable and cost-effective servers that combine bare metal performance, cloud scalability, and advanced networking capabilities. The result was a global setup capable of supporting peak concurrency, controlling costs, and overcoming complex regional connectivity challenges, including high latency for players in mainland China.

The challenge: Scaling dedicated servers without unsustainable costs

Depending on the game, this can include telemetry, backend services, matchmaking, and dedicated game servers.

Dedicated servers are resource-heavy by nature. They run headless game builds derived from the same codebase as the client, consuming significant CPU and memory resources to simulate game state, manage players, and host concurrent sessions. Hosting these workloads entirely in the public cloud proved financially inefficient over time, even for games that require dedicated servers around the clock.

“We started in the cloud because it felt like unlimited hardware. But it eventually became expensive.”

Dmitri Brevdo, Head of Game Services Department, Saber Interactive

As player numbers grew and Saber’s portfolio expanded, the team needed an infrastructure model that could scale globally while keeping long-term operational costs under control. At the same time, the solution had to deliver consistent performance across more than a dozen regions worldwide.

Why Saber works with i3D.net

Saber ultimately adopted a hybrid, multi-vendor hosting strategy, combining cloud infrastructure for elasticity with bare metal servers for predictable, cost-effective baseline capacity. i3D.net became a key partner in this setup due to its ability to meet multiple requirements at once.

From a technical perspective, i3D.net offered access to powerful bare metal configurations—typically 16 to 32 cores with high memory capacity—capable of hosting up to 100 concurrent sessions per machine. These servers were available in regions that mattered most to Saber’s player base, including Europe, North America, South America, and Asia.

Commercially, i3D.net’s pricing model made long-term commitments viable in regions where cloud costs would otherwise dominate the infrastructure budget.

“In several regions, i3D.net is definitely the most cost‑effective option compared to other providers.” said Dmitri Brevdo, Head of Game Services Department, Saber Interactive

Crucially, i3D.net also fit seamlessly into Saber’s existing multi-provider design rather than forcing exclusivity.

“Our global footprint with i3D.net has expanded to new regions, allowing us to directly support local users with increased personal protection. The increased network footprint has also added redundancy and resiliency across our global network. We're also seeing decreased latency for time-sensitive DNS queries."

Dmitri Brevdo, Head of Game Services Department, Saber Interactive

Rollout and technical architecture

Saber’s platform architecture is designed around a layered hosting approach that balances cost efficiency with flexibility. At its core, the setup consists of long-term committed bare metal servers that handle the majority of daily player concurrency. These machines provide a stable, predictable baseline at a lower cost per session than public cloud infrastructure.

During daily peaks or major events such as game launches, additional capacity is added through cloud providers. This allows Saber to absorb traffic spikes without permanently overprovisioning hardware.

On top of this, Saber is working closely with i3D.net to introduce a third layer using Flex Metal — bare metal servers that can be provisioned more dynamically than traditional fixed commitments. While automation is still being refined, this layer has the potential to significantly reduce reliance on cloud infrastructure during predictable peak periods.

“Flex Metal could completely change how we scale. It allows us to burst with bare metal instead of cloud.” said Dmitri Brevdo.

From an operational standpoint, Saber dynamically assigns servers at session creation time, rather than exposing static server lists. This design improves security, limits attack vectors, and ensures that individual machine failures do not disrupt the overall service.

Overcoming high latency for players in mainland China

One of the most impactful challenges emerged during the launch of a new multiplayer title that attracted a larger‑than‑expected player base in mainland China.

Although Saber hosted servers in Hong Kong using i3D.net’s infrastructure, a significant portion of Chinese players experienced unexpectedly high latency, sometimes exceeding 300 milliseconds. This made the game effectively unplayable for affected users, despite theoretical proximity to the data center.

The issue stemmed from cross‑border routing constraints rather than server performance. To resolve this, Saber worked with i3D.net to deploy a network acceleration solution, routing player traffic through proxy infrastructure within mainland China before forwarding it to the Hong Kong servers.

Rather than introducing a bespoke setup, i3D.net made the solution easy to operationalize by mirroring Saber’s existing network architecture used in other regions—effectively allowing the team to replicate a proven model with minimal added complexity.

“After we introduced network acceleration, the ping distribution completely changed. It was a game changer for Chinese players.”
 — Dmitri Brevdo, Head of Game Services Department, Saber Interactive

While mainland China is widely regarded as a challenging networking environment, Saber prioritized launch stability and a consistent player experience across regions. Having a partner that could deliver both performance and operational consistency proved critical at a moment when early player sentiment could shape the game’s commercial trajectory.

Dark version of Network map in Asia

Results: Performance, cost control, and stability at scale

By partnering with i3D.net, Saber achieved clear outcomes across technical reliability and business performance.

  • Reduced latency for players in mainland China, transforming previously unplayable sessions into stable multiplayer experiences
  • Lower long-term hosting costs compared to a cloud-only deployment
  • Improved resilience through dynamic server allocation and multi-layer hosting
  • Greater confidence during launches and peak periods

 

Beyond metrics, Saber values i3D.net as a long-term operational partner that understands the realities of live games.

“We know i3D.net’s quality level is high. The hardware is reliable and support is responsive, and that matters for live games.”

Dmitri Brevdo, Head of Game Services Department, Saber Interactive

Looking ahead: Scaling a multi-game platform

Today, Saber’s Game Services platform supports more than a dozen live titles, with plans to expand further, both internally and as a commercial offering for external studios. As the platform grows, so too will its infrastructure footprint across regions and providers.

Future collaboration with i3D.net will focus on deeper automation via Flex Metal APIs, expanding regional presence, and further optimizing the balance between bare metal efficiency and cloud elasticity.

“As we grow the platform, we’ll need to grow our presence in data centers worldwide. This is something we plan to do together with i3D.net.” — Dmitri Brevdo, Head of Game Services Department, Saber Interactive

Company Description
Saber Interactive is a global game developer behind large‑scale multiplayer titles, operating a proprietary platform supporting multiple live games worldwide.
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Gaming
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